What the hell is Leadership?

Leadership is that fine line between knowing what you are doing and having others trust you to do the right thing. Being a great leader takes practice but the foundation of all leadership is service. Serving your team is your most important job.

When you tell people what to do, you take away their opportunity to rise up and problem solve. In today’s world, we need more creative problem solvers. If you can create a team of problem solvers, you will far exceed your goals.

You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case. —Ken Kesey

Here are some helpful tips on Leadership:

DON’T TELL PEOPLE WHAT TO DO

Leadership you will see it comes in many forms. Unfortunately most of the time it’s poor. People think that by telling you what to do they are leaders.

A SERVANT-LEADER focuses first and foremost on the growth and well-being of the teams they belong to.

To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less. —Andre Malraux

LISTEN TO OTHERS

The reality of leadership is you need to understand your environment, your people, and how to get to the goal. The best way to do that is through experience, a lot of intuition, and listening to others.

Decision making as a leader can one of the most daunting aspects of leadership. You probably have thought, “How do I know I’m making the right decision?” I routinely ask everyone on the team for input even if I’m not sure I’m making a wrong decision, I still hear everyone out.

When making decisions that impact others, you have to remember your job as a leader is to serve others. When you ask those around you for input, you give them a voice and a sense of importance. It’s important to give your team a voice!

LISTEN TO OTHER LEADERS

You’re most likely not leading alone. You may have a co-director, co-founder, or someone else in your life that has led a team in the past. Tap into that network. You may be surprised at the support you receive.

KNOCK DOWN THOSE ROADBLOCKS

Much about leadership is putting up with bullshit so your team doesn’t have to. Ideally, you can knock down the roadblocks your team has towards success without distracting your team from their goals.

If you can anticipate the challenges your team will have before they happen, you can prepare. You can build the boat and lead your team through the white water.

The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly. —Jim Rohn

Samantha Heacock

Sam is the Marketing Director of Zero Hour Media, although you would never know that if you spent a day with her. She’s usually got the longest “to-do” list out of the entire team, and somehow manages to find time to play with Axel “The Beast” Flannery AKA the company dog. Sam attended Taylor University where she got her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work. You can usually find her on the side of a mountain, climbing her way to the top, (literally, not figuratively.)